Russian Formalism (1920-30s)

 Russian Formalism - (1920-30s)

(useful for JL/DL/NET/SET/Other competetive exams)

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1.    Russian Formalism - (1920-30s)

Ø It is a work of 2 groups (Moscow & Prague Groups)

Ø They say device is the only hero of literature.

Ø Emerged in Moscow & St. Petersburg in 1920’s

Ø Fundamental opposition between ordinary language & literary language (literariness)

Ø It rejects notions of culture, social influence, authorship, and content, instead they focus on modes, genres, discourses and forms.

Ø Interested in analysis of form, structure, language than in content.

Ø Based on the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure and partly on Symbolist notions concerning the autonomy of the text

Ø Formalists & futurists found a common platform in the journal LEF (left front of art)

Ø They stressed defamiliarisation as a function of art 

Ø Advocated scientific method to study poetic language to the exclusion of traditional, psychological and cultural, historical approach

Ø Unlike, New Criticism in America they were not interested in cultural & moral significance of literate

Ø Suppressed by Stalin moved to Czechoslovakia

Ø It influenced– Mikhal Bakhtin, Yurilotman & structuralists,

Ø Leon Trotsky criticised formalists in “Literature & Revolution (1924)”

Key terms:

Literariness:

Ø Distinguishes between literary language from ordinary language.

Ø The term ‘literariness’ was first introduced by the Russian Formalist Roman Jacobson in 1921.

Ø He declared in his work Modern Russian Poetry that ‘the object of literary science is not literature but literariness, i.e. what makes a given work a literary work’

Fabula(=story):

Ø Chronological sequence of events.

Ø Story produced by reader by interpretation (Not by author).

Ø Syuzhet(=plot):

Ø It is the actual arrangement of the Fabula. It is narrative.

Ø The basic material of the story is

Fabula;

Ø The story as it is actually told syzhet.

Ø One fabula can provide material for -many suzhet

Ø Russian formalists conceived the effects and proposer of suzhet differently to those of Aristotle's mythos.

Ø Aristotle says plot (mythos) is arrangement of incidents, which is clearly different to the story on which it is based

Skaz

Ø It is a Russian oral form of narrative.

Ø The word comes from skazátʹ, "to tell", and is also related to such words as rasskaz, "short story" and skazka, "fairy tale”

Ø It was first described by the Russian formalist Boris Eikhenbaum in the late 1910s.

Defamiliarization:

Ø differentiates between ordinary usage and poetic usage of language, and imparts a uniqueness to a literary work.

Ø Coined by Viktor Schklovsky in his essay “Art as Device (alternate translation: "Art as Technique -1917)”.

Ø Originated from Ostranenie = making strange (Russian word).

Ø Ex: Tolstoy’s usage of Horse as narrator of 'Kholstomer(Strider)” makes the story unfamiliar. Shklovsky cites Lawrence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy as an example of a story that is defamiliarized by unfamiliar plotting

Ø Defamiliarization has been associated “Epic Theatre” and playwright Bertolt Brecht, whose Verfremdungseffekt (estrangement effect/ alienation effect) was a potent element of his approach to theatre. In fact, as Willett points it is "a translation of Shklovski's phrase 'Priem Ostranenija', or 'device for making strange'

Ø Viktor Shklovsky, who famously argued that “the purpose of art was to make the stone stony" - that is, to use devices to defamiliarize everyday objects and experiences, making them fresh and new again.

Motif

Ø Russian formalists used motivations in relation to "motif".

Ø Tomashevski distinguished between Bound and Free motif.

Ø Motif: is a unit of construction: the smallest unit of a plot, a single or statement or action.

Ø Bound Motif -fixed with original story,

Ø Free Motif- inclusion of unfamiliar device in story.

Metaphor vs metonymy

Ø In “Fundamentals of language (1956)” (Roman Jacobson collaborated with Moris Halle) differentiated between metaphor and metonymy.

Ø Jakobson has pointed out that the basic difference between metaphor and metonymy as, “metaphor is based on similarity while metonymy is on contiguity”

Ø Ex:The ship crossed the sea (by using metaphor) we can say the ship ploughed the sea.

Ø The deepness of sea (by using metonymy) we can say the ship crossed the deep.

Ø Metaphor = Combination of things not necessarily associated

Ø Metonymy= utilizing closely associated attributes.

 

Jakobson’s Six functions of language    described & functions verbal communication

1.The referential function: corresponds to the factor of Context and describes a situation, object or mental state.

2. The emotive function: relates to the Addresser (sender) and is best exemplified by interjections and used to express feelings of happiness, sadness, grief. Ex: "Wow, what a view!"

3.The poetic function: focuses on "the message for its own sake" and is the operative function in poetry as well as slogans.

4.The conative function: engages the Addressee (receiver) directly and is best illustrated by vocatives and imperatives, Ex: "Tom! Come inside and eat!"

5.The phatic function: is language for the sake of interaction and is therefore associated with the Contact/Channel factor. The Phatic Function can be observed in greetings and casual discussions, particularly with strangers. Ex: "Hello?", "Ok?", "Hummm", "Bye"...

6.The Metalingual (or "reflexive") function: is the use of language (what Jakobson calls "Code") to discuss or describe itself.

Code:

CM SRC C-REP CPM

CM received SRCC REPresentation from CPM

 

Critics & Books

Viktor Shklovsky(1893-1984):

Ø “Art as Device (1916)”

Ø “Art as Technique (1917)” -manifesto of OPOYAZ; several concepts were formulated which are crucial in Russian formalism.

Ø Says Art as sum of literary & Artistic devices.

Ø Founder of OPOYAZ (Obschchesto

Izuchenilia Poeticheskogo Yazyzka, based in St Petersburg (Society for the study of Poetic Language) in 1916.

Ø OPOYAZ focussed on technique & Device

Ø They differentiate between practical & poetic language.

 

Ramon Jacobson (1896-1982):

Ø He is a bridge b/w Russian formalism and structuralism-

Ø “Closing statements: Linguists & Poets (1985s)"

Ø Founder member of Moscow Linguistic Circle

Ø He left Moscow, moved to Czechoslovakia a Co-founded Prague school (1926), and with Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939. He finally settled in USA in 1941.

Ø His writings reveal the influence of Saussure

Ø He and Levi Strauss (French anthropologist) were colleagues at the new school of social research in New York from 1941. They collaborated on the analysis of Baudelaire’s poem “Les chants”

 

Viktor Erlich -"Russian Formalism (1955)”

 

Rene Welleck – “Literary theory & Aesthetics of the Prague School (1928)"

 

Vladimir Popp-

Ø "Morphology of the folk tale (1928)’ - analysis of Russian Fairy Tales.

Ø Discovered 31 basic units of narrative functions and 7 spheres of action.

Ø founded "the Moscow linguistic Circle”

 

Yury Tynianov –

Ø "Systemo-functional model”.

Ø In 1928, together with the linguist Roman Jakobson, he published a famous work titled Theses on Language, a predecessor to structuralism

 

Boris Tomashevski -

 

Boris Eichenbann-

 

Grigory Gukovsky –“The theory of the formal method (1926-17)”

 

Lev Jakubinsky- member of OPOYAZ"

 

Dostovsky – “Crime & Punishment”-Novel,  "The Moscow school (1915-1924)”

 

Jan Mukarovsky: - member of Prague school, developed the concept of foregrounding (Foregrounding is a literary device that emphasizes ideas and symbols through attention-seeking techniques.)

 

 

 

Moscow linguistic Circle (1915-24-(Moscow)

-founded by Fillip Fedorovich Fortunatov, Ramon Jacobson, Boris Tomashvosky, Griogory, Vinokur, Peter Bogatyrev

-It is a counter part of OPOYAZ

 

The Prague School (1926-39) (Prague)

-founded by Cafe Derby in Prague.

-Roman Jacobson, Nikolai Tolibetzkoy, Rene Wellek, Mkarovsky

 

Russian formalism the three phases The 3 phases can be characterised by three metaphors:

1^st phase -regarded literature as a kind of machine with various devices and functioning parts. Influential in the early phase was Victor Schklovsky.

2^nd phase- considered literature as in” Organism”

3^rd phase- saw literary texts as “systems”